Historically, these high loads and their connections have been taken by metal stays, shrouds and blocks. These have all been have been constructed using meta including stainless steel, resulting in relatively high weight and in stays, metal tapered compression cones.
Recently more advanced designs have replaced some metal with high strength braid, such as Spectra, Dyneema, PBO and carbon fiber etc. with a resultant reduction in weight, Since in a yacht, reduction in weight can be directly translated into improved performance, there exists a need to further reduce weight in high load yacht fittings, such as stays, blocks and shrouds.
Practability and termination of these newer systems however make them difficult to commercialize.
Lightweight blocks using braid connections are limited in some applications, where a more rigid construction is more appropriate.